* NEWS: Update text for "maint set python print-stack".
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.4
5
6 * Python scripting
7
8 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
9
10 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
11 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
12
13 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
14 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
15
16 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
17
18 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
19 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
20 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
21 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
22 inferior changes.
23
24 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
25 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
26
27 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
28 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
29 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
30 target hardware watchpoint.
31
32 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
33 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
34 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
35 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
36
37 * Python scripting
38
39 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
40 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
41 existing one.
42
43 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
44 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
45 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
46 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
47 now "message", which just prints the error message without
48 the stack trace.
49
50 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
51 Python API.
52
53 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
54 modules library. This module provides functionality for
55 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
56 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
57 corresponding value.
58
59 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
60 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
61 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
62 on GDB start-up.
63
64 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
65 static_block will return the global and static blocks
66 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
67 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
68
69 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
70
71 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
72 "gdb.breakpoints".
73
74 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
75 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
76 available in the CLI.
77
78 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
79 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
80 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
81 "some_type.items()".
82
83 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
84 new object file.
85
86 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
87 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
88 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
89 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
90 any anonymous fields.
91
92 * MI changes
93
94 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
95 "solib-event".
96
97 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
98 "=breakpoint-modified".
99
100 ** New command -ada-task-info.
101
102 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
103 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
104 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
105 lives.
106
107 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
108 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
109 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
110 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
111 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
112
113 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
114 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
115
116 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
117 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
118 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
119 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
120 use this option to specify where to find it.
121
122 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
123 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
124 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
125 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
126 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
127 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
128 section in the user manual for more details.
129
130 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
131 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
132 become available after that.
133
134 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
135
136 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
137 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
138 gcc version 4.7.
139
140 * New commands
141
142 !SHELL COMMAND
143 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
144 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
145
146 * Changed commands
147
148 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
149 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
150 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
151
152 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
153 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
154 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
155
156 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
157 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
158 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
159 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
160 name starts with a hyphen.
161
162 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
163 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
164 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
165 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
166 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
167 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
168 number of bytes that will be collected.
169
170 tstart [NOTES]
171 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
172 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
173 setting the variable trace-notes.
174
175 tstop [NOTES]
176 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
177 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
178 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
179 trace-stop-notes.
180
181 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
182 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
183 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
184 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
185 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
186 is running.
187
188 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
189 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
190 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
191
192 * New options
193
194 set extended-prompt
195 show extended-prompt
196 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
197 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
198 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
199 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
200 prompt is displayed.
201
202 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
203 show print entry-values
204 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
205 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
206 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
207
208 set debug entry-values
209 show debug entry-values
210 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
211 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
212
213 set basenames-may-differ
214 show basenames-may-differ
215 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
216 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
217 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
218 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
219 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
220 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
221 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
222 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
223
224 set trace-user
225 show trace-user
226 set trace-notes
227 show trace-notes
228 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
229 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
230 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
231 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
232
233 set trace-stop-notes
234 show trace-stop-notes
235 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
236 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
237 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
238 started by someone else.
239
240 * New remote packets
241
242 QTEnable
243
244 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
245
246 QTDisable
247
248 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
249
250 QTNotes
251
252 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
253
254 qTP
255
256 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
257
258 qTMinFTPILen
259
260 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
261 be placed.
262
263 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
264 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
265
266 * New targets
267
268 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
269
270 * New Simulators
271
272 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
273
274 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
275
276 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
277
278 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
279
280 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
281 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
282 matches the given regular expression.
283
284 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
285
286 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
287 dumping the instruction opcodes.
288
289 * New command line options
290
291 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
292 This is mostly for testing purposes.
293
294 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
295 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
296
297 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
298 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
299 source path list instead of augmenting it.
300
301 * GDB now understands thread names.
302
303 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
304 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
305
306 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
307 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
308
309 * OpenCL C
310 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
311 has been integrated into GDB.
312
313 * Python scripting
314
315 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
316 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
317 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
318
319 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
320 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
321 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
322 and allows for more dynamic content.
323
324 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
325 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
326 have an is_valid method.
327
328 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
329 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
330 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
331
332 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
333
334 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
335 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
336 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
337 that function like so:
338
339 result = some_value (10,20)
340
341 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
342 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
343 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
344
345 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
346 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
347 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
348 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
349 New function: register_pretty_printer.
350
351 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
352 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
353
354 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
355
356 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
357 selected thread.
358
359 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
360 holds the thread's name.
361
362 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
363 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
364 occurring in the process being debugged.
365 The following events are currently supported:
366 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
367 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
368 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
369
370 * C++ Improvements:
371
372 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
373 instantiation. For example, if you have:
374
375 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
376
377 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
378 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
379 was added to GCC 4.5.
380
381 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
382 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
383 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
384 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
385 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
386 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
387
388 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
389 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
390 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
391 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
392 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
393
394 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
395 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
396 execution to a label.
397
398 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
399 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
400 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
401 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
402
403 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
404 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
405 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
406 of scope.
407
408 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
409
410 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
411 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
412 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
413 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
414 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
415 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
416
417 (gdb) info threads
418 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
419
420 While now you see this:
421
422 (gdb) info threads
423 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
424
425 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
426 dumps.
427
428 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
429 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
430 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
431 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
432
433 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
434 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
435 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
436 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
437 section in the user manual for more details.
438
439 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
440
441 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
442 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
443
444 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
445
446 * New native configurations
447
448 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
449
450 * New targets:
451
452 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
453
454 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
455 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
456 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
457 in the GDB user manual.
458
459 * Guile support was removed.
460
461 * New features in the GNU simulator
462
463 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
464
465 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
466
467 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
468
469 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
470
471 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
472 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
473 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
474 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
475 was always disabled for such configurations.
476
477 * C++ Improvements:
478
479 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
480
481 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
482 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
483 For example:
484 namespace A
485 {
486 class B { };
487 void foo (B) { }
488 }
489 ...
490 A::B b
491 foo(b)
492 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
493 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
494 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
495
496 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
497
498 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
499 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
500 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
501 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
502 entry.
503 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
504 mentioned flavors of operators.
505
506 ** static const class members
507
508 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
509 class definition has been fixed.
510
511 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
512
513 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
514 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
515 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
516 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
517 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
518 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
519
520 * Static tracepoints
521
522 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
523 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
524 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
525 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
526 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
527 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
528 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
529 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
530 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
531 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
532 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
533 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
534 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
535 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
536 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
537 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
538 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
539 the "New remote packets" section below.
540
541 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
542
543 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
544 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
545 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
546 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
547
548 * Observer mode
549
550 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
551 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
552 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
553 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
554 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
555 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
556 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
557
558 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
559 current thread.
560
561 * New remote packets
562
563 qGetTIBAddr
564
565 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
566
567 qRelocInsn
568
569 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
570 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
571 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
572 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
573 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
574 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
575
576 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
577
578 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
579
580 qTSTMat
581
582 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
583 program.
584
585 qXfer:statictrace:read
586
587 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
588 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
589 to gdb's qSupported query.
590
591 QAllow
592
593 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
594
595 QTDPsrc
596
597 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
598 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
599
600 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
601 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
602 a directory.
603
604 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
605
606 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
607 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
608 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
609 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
610
611 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
612 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
613 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
614 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
615 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
616 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
617 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
618
619 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
620 for static tracepoints support.
621
622 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
623
624 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
625 it understands register description.
626
627 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
628
629 * X86 general purpose registers
630
631 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
632 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
633 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
634 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
635 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
636
637 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
638 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
639 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
640 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
641 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
642 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
643
644 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
645 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
646 in the specified file.
647
648 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
649 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
650 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
651 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
652 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
653 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
654 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
655 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
656 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
657 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
658
659 * New commands
660
661 eval template, expressions...
662 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
663 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
664
665 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
666 show target-file-system-kind
667 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
668 names.
669
670 save breakpoints <filename>
671 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
672 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
673 definitions, use the `source' command.
674
675 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
676 is now deprecated.
677
678 info static-tracepoint-markers
679 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
680
681 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
682 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
683 function, line, address, or marker ID.
684
685 set observer on|off
686 show observer
687 Enable and disable observer mode.
688
689 set may-write-registers on|off
690 set may-write-memory on|off
691 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
692 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
693 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
694 set may-interrupt on|off
695 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
696 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
697 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
698 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
699 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
700 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
701 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
702
703 set record memory-query on|off
704 show record memory-query
705 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
706 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
707
708 * Changed commands
709
710 disassemble
711 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
712
713 * Python scripting
714
715 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
716 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
717 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
718 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
719 GDB using Python' in the manual.
720
721 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
722 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
723 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
724 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
725
726 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
727 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
728
729 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
730
731 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
732
733 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
734
735 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
736 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
737 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
738
739 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
740 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
741 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
742 regular breakpoints.
743
744 * New targets
745
746 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
747
748 * D language support.
749 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
750 language.
751
752 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
753 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
754 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
755 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
756 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
757
758 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
759 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
760 conditions of the form:
761
762 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
763
764 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
765 interface mentioned above.
766
767 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
768
769 * C++ Improvements
770
771 ** Namespace Support
772
773 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
774 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
775 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
776 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
777 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
778
779 ** Bug Fixes
780
781 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
782 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
783 qualified name.
784
785 ** Cast Operators
786
787 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
788 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
789
790 * New targets
791
792 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
793 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
794
795 * New Simulators
796
797 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
798 Renesas RX rx
799
800 * Multi-program debugging.
801
802 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
803 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
804 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
805 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
806 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
807 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
808 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
809 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
810
811 * New tracing features
812
813 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
814
815 ** Trace state variables
816
817 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
818 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
819 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
820 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
821 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
822 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
823 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
824 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
825 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
826 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
827
828 ** Fast tracepoints
829
830 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
831 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
832 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
833 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
834 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
835 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
836 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
837 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
838 the regular trace command.
839
840 ** Disconnected tracing
841
842 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
843 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
844 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
845 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
846 connection is lost unexpectedly.
847
848 ** Trace files
849
850 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
851 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
852 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
853 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
854 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
855 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
856 <name>".
857
858 ** Circular trace buffer
859
860 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
861 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
862 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
863 not be available for all target agents.
864
865 * Changed commands
866
867 disassemble
868 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
869 the arguments to be comma-separated.
870
871 info variables
872 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
873 which only declare a variable are not shown.
874
875 source
876 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
877 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
878 support.
879
880 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
881 "set script-extension" (see below).
882
883 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
884
885 record save [<FILENAME>]
886 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
887 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
888
889 record restore <FILENAME>
890 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
891 earlier time, for replay debugging.
892
893 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
894 Add a new inferior.
895
896 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
897 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
898 inferior has loaded.
899
900 remove-inferior ID
901 Remove an inferior.
902
903 maint info program-spaces
904 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
905
906 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
907 show remote interrupt-sequence
908 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
909 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
910 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
911 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
912 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
913
914 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
915 show remote interrupt-on-connect
916 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
917 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
918 Linux kernel.
919
920 set remotebreak [on | off]
921 show remotebreak
922 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
923
924 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
925 Create or modify a trace state variable.
926
927 info tvariables
928 List trace state variables and their values.
929
930 delete tvariable $NAME ...
931 Delete one or more trace state variables.
932
933 teval EXPR, ...
934 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
935 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
936
937 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
938 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
939
940 * New expression syntax
941
942 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
943 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
944
945 * New options
946
947 set follow-exec-mode new|same
948 show follow-exec-mode
949 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
950 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
951 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
952
953 set default-collect EXPR, ...
954 show default-collect
955 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
956 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
957 such as registers or a critical global variable.
958
959 set disconnected-tracing
960 show disconnected-tracing
961 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
962 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
963 upon disconnection.
964
965 set circular-trace-buffer
966 show circular-trace-buffer
967 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
968 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
969 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
970 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
971
972 set script-extension off|soft|strict
973 show script-extension
974 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
975 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
976 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
977 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
978 evaluation failed.
979 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
980
981 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
982 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
983 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
984 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
985 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
986 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
987 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
988 is on.
989
990 * Python API Improvements
991
992 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
993 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
994 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
995
996 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
997 `is_base_class' attribute.
998
999 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1000
1001 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1002 evaluate an expression.
1003
1004 * New remote packets
1005
1006 QTDV
1007 Define a trace state variable.
1008
1009 qTV
1010 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1011
1012 QTDisconnected
1013 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1014
1015 QTBuffer:circular
1016 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1017
1018 qTfP, qTsP
1019 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1020
1021 * Bug fixes
1022
1023 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1024
1025 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1026 much more reliable. In particular:
1027 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1028 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1029 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1030 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1031 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1032 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1033 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1034 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1035 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1036 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1037 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1038 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1039 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1040 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1041 non-threaded programs.
1042
1043 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1044 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1045 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1046 executable program.
1047
1048 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
1049
1050 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1051 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1052 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1053 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1054 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1055
1056 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1057 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1058 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1059 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1060 for tracepoint actions.
1061
1062 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1063 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1064 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1065
1066 * Process record and replay
1067
1068 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1069 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1070 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1071 execute commands.
1072
1073 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1074 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1075 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1076 reverse execution.
1077
1078 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1079 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
1080 2.6.28 or later.
1081
1082 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1083 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1084 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1085 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1086 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1087 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1088 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1089 the installation instructions for more information.
1090
1091 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1092 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1093 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1094 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1095
1096 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1097 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1098
1099 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1100 now complete on file names.
1101
1102 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1103 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1104 For instance, consider:
1105
1106 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1107 # struct example variable;
1108 (gdb) p variable.
1109
1110 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1111 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1112
1113 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1114 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1115
1116 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1117 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1118 macros.
1119
1120 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1121 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1122 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1123
1124 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1125 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1126 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1127 and simulator targets may also provide them.
1128
1129 * New remote packets
1130
1131 qSearch:memory:
1132 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1133
1134 QStartNoAckMode
1135 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1136 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1137 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1138
1139 vKill
1140 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1141 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1142
1143 qXfer:osdata:read
1144 Obtains additional operating system information
1145
1146 qXfer:siginfo:read
1147 qXfer:siginfo:write
1148 Read or write additional signal information.
1149
1150 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1151
1152 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1153 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1154 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1155
1156 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1157 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1158
1159 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1160 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1161 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
1162
1163 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1164 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1165
1166 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1167
1168 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1169
1170 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1171 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1172
1173 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1174 list of section offsets.
1175
1176 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1177 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1178 have also been fixed.
1179
1180 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1181 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1182 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1183
1184 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1185 example, given:
1186
1187 template<typename T> class C { };
1188 C<char const *> c;
1189
1190 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1191
1192 ptype C<char const *>
1193 ptype C<char const*>
1194 ptype C<const char *>
1195 ptype C<const char*>
1196
1197 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1198
1199 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1200 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1201
1202 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1203 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1204 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1205
1206 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1207 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1208
1209 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1210 gdbserver.
1211
1212 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1213 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1214
1215 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1216 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1217 as appropriate.
1218
1219 * Python scripting
1220
1221 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1222 available is determined at configure time.
1223
1224 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1225
1226 * Ada tasking support
1227
1228 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1229 been introduced:
1230
1231 info tasks
1232 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1233 info task N
1234 Print detailed information about task number N.
1235 task
1236 Print the task number of the current task.
1237 task N
1238 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1239
1240 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1241 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1242
1243 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1244
1245 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1246 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1247 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1248 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1249 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1250 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1251 below.
1252
1253 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1254 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1255 information.
1256
1257 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1258 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1259 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1260 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1261 more information.
1262
1263 * Multi-architecture debugging.
1264
1265 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1266 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1267 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1268 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1269 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1270
1271 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1272 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1273 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1274 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1275 --enable-targets configure option.
1276
1277 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1278
1279 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1280 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1281 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1282 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1283 section in the user manual for more information.
1284
1285 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1286 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1287 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1288 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1289 extensions on linux targets.
1290
1291 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1292
1293 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1294 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1295 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1296 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1297 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1298 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1299 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1300 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1301 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1302
1303 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1304 val1 [, val2, ...]
1305 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1306
1307 maint set python print-stack
1308 maint show python print-stack
1309 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1310
1311 python [CODE]
1312 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1313
1314 macro define
1315 macro list
1316 macro undef
1317 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1318 interactively.
1319
1320 info os processes
1321 Show operating system information about processes.
1322
1323 info inferiors
1324 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1325
1326 inferior NUM
1327 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1328
1329 detach inferior NUM
1330 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1331
1332 kill inferior NUM
1333 Kill inferior number NUM.
1334
1335 * New options
1336
1337 set spu stop-on-load
1338 show spu stop-on-load
1339 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1340
1341 set spu auto-flush-cache
1342 show spu auto-flush-cache
1343 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1344 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1345
1346 set sh calling-convention
1347 show sh calling-convention
1348 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1349
1350 set debug timestamp
1351 show debug timestamp
1352 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1353
1354 set disassemble-next-line
1355 show disassemble-next-line
1356 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1357 the debuggee stops.
1358
1359 set remote noack-packet
1360 show remote noack-packet
1361 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1362 under "New remote packets."
1363
1364 set remote query-attached-packet
1365 show remote query-attached-packet
1366 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1367
1368 set remote read-siginfo-object
1369 show remote read-siginfo-object
1370 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1371 packet.
1372
1373 set remote write-siginfo-object
1374 show remote write-siginfo-object
1375 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1376 packet.
1377
1378 set remote reverse-continue
1379 show remote reverse-continue
1380 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1381
1382 set remote reverse-step
1383 show remote reverse-step
1384 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1385
1386 set displaced-stepping
1387 show displaced-stepping
1388 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1389 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1390 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1391
1392 set debug displaced
1393 show debug displaced
1394 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1395
1396 maint set internal-error
1397 maint show internal-error
1398 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1399
1400 maint set internal-warning
1401 maint show internal-warning
1402 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1403
1404 set exec-wrapper
1405 show exec-wrapper
1406 unset exec-wrapper
1407 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1408
1409 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1410 show multiple-symbols
1411 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1412 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1413 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1414
1415 set breakpoint always-inserted
1416 show breakpoint always-inserted
1417 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1418 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1419 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1420
1421 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1422 show arm fallback-mode
1423 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1424 show arm force-mode
1425 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1426 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1427 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1428 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1429
1430 set disable-randomization
1431 show disable-randomization
1432 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1433 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1434 multiple debugging sessions.
1435
1436 set non-stop
1437 show non-stop
1438 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1439 a breakpoint.
1440
1441 set target-async
1442 show target-async
1443 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1444 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1445 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1446 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1447
1448 set target-wide-charset
1449 show target-wide-charset
1450 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1451 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1452
1453 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1454 show tcp auto-retry
1455 set tcp connect-timeout
1456 show tcp connect-timeout
1457 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1458 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1459 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1460
1461 set libthread-db-search-path
1462 show libthread-db-search-path
1463 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1464 libthread_db.
1465
1466 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1467 show schedule-multiple
1468 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1469 the current process.
1470
1471 set stack-cache
1472 show stack-cache
1473 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1474 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1475 affecting correctness.
1476
1477 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1478 show interactive-mode
1479 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1480 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1481 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1482 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1483 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1484
1485 * Removed commands
1486
1487 info forks
1488 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1489 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1490 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1491 command.
1492
1493 fork NUM
1494 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1495 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1496 alias for the `fork' command.
1497
1498 process PID
1499 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1500 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1501 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1502
1503 delete fork NUM
1504 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1505 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1506 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1507 fork' command.
1508
1509 detach fork NUM
1510 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1511 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1512 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1513 fork' command.
1514
1515 * New native configurations
1516
1517 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1518
1519 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1520
1521 * New targets
1522
1523 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1524 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1525 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1526 S+core 3 score-*-*
1527
1528 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1529 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1530
1531 * Removed commands
1532
1533 catch load
1534 catch unload
1535 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1536
1537 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1538
1539 * New native configurations
1540
1541 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1542 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1543
1544 * New targets
1545
1546 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1547 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1548
1549 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1550
1551 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1552 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1553 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1554 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1555
1556 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1557 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1558
1559 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1560 is resolved.
1561
1562 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1563 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1564 and in inlined functions.
1565
1566 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1567 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1568 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1569
1570 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1571
1572 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1573 registers on PowerPC targets.
1574
1575 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1576 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1577
1578 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1579 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1580
1581 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1582 extended-remote mode.
1583
1584 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1585 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1586 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1587 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1588
1589 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1590 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1591 target architectures.
1592
1593 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1594 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1595 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1596 stored in two consecutive float registers.
1597
1598 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1599 breakpoints now.
1600
1601 * Improved support for debugging Ada
1602 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1603 include:
1604 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1605 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1606 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1607 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1608 of an assignment
1609 - Improved command completion in Ada
1610 - Several bug fixes
1611
1612 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1613 process.
1614
1615 * New commands
1616
1617 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1618 show print frame-arguments
1619 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1620 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1621
1622 remote put
1623 remote get
1624 remote delete
1625 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1626
1627 * New MI commands
1628
1629 -target-file-put
1630 -target-file-get
1631 -target-file-delete
1632 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1633
1634 * New remote packets
1635
1636 vFile:open:
1637 vFile:close:
1638 vFile:pread:
1639 vFile:pwrite:
1640 vFile:unlink:
1641 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1642
1643 vAttach
1644 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1645 mode.
1646
1647 vRun
1648 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1649
1650 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1651
1652 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1653 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1654 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1655
1656 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1657 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1658 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1659
1660 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1661 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1662 is not supported.
1663
1664 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1665 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1666
1667 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1668 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1669
1670 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1671
1672 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1673 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1674 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1675
1676 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1677 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1678
1679 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1680 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1681 as strings.
1682
1683 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1684 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1685 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1686
1687 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1688 iWMMXt coprocessor.
1689
1690 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1691 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1692 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1693
1694 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1695
1696 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1697
1698 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1699 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1700 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1701
1702 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1703 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1704
1705 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1706 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1707 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1708 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1709 Windows and SymbianOS).
1710
1711 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1712 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1713
1714 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1715 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1716
1717 * New commands
1718
1719 set remoteflow
1720 show remoteflow
1721 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1722 when debugging using remote targets.
1723
1724 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1725 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1726 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1727 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1728 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1729 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1730 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1731
1732 set breakpoint auto-hw
1733 show breakpoint auto-hw
1734 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1735 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1736 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1737 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1738 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1739 including "next" and "finish".
1740
1741 catch exception
1742 catch exception unhandled
1743 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1744
1745 catch assert
1746 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1747
1748 set sysroot
1749 show sysroot
1750 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1751 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1752 an alias to "set sysroot".
1753
1754 info spu
1755 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1756 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1757 architecture.
1758
1759 * New native configurations
1760
1761 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1762
1763 set tdesc filename
1764 unset tdesc filename
1765 show tdesc filename
1766 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1767 not query the target for its built-in description.
1768
1769 * New targets
1770
1771 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1772 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1773 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1774
1775 * New remote packets
1776
1777 QPassSignals:
1778 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1779 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1780
1781 qXfer:features:read:
1782 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1783 features.
1784
1785 qXfer:spu:read:
1786 qXfer:spu:write:
1787 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1788 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1789
1790 qXfer:libraries:read:
1791 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1792 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1793 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1794 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1795
1796 * Removed targets
1797
1798 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1799
1800 alpha*-*-osf1*
1801 alpha*-*-osf2*
1802 d10v-*-*
1803 hppa*-*-hiux*
1804 i[34567]86-ncr-*
1805 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1806 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1807 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1808 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1809 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1810 i[34567]86-*-sco*
1811 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1812 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1813 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1814 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1815 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1816 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1817 i[34567]86-*-isc*
1818 m68*-cisco*-*
1819 m68*-tandem-*
1820 mips*-*-pe
1821 rs6000-*-lynxos*
1822 sh*-*-pe
1823
1824 * Other removed features
1825
1826 target abug
1827 target cpu32bug
1828 target est
1829 target rom68k
1830
1831 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1832
1833 target hms
1834 target e7000
1835 target sh3
1836 target sh3e
1837
1838 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1839 H8/300.
1840
1841 target ocd
1842
1843 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1844 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1845 interfaces.
1846
1847 DWARF 1 support
1848
1849 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1850 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1851
1852 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1853
1854 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1855 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1856 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1857 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1858
1859 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1860
1861 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1862 in debugging information.
1863
1864 Scheme support
1865
1866 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1867 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1868
1869 set mips stack-arg-size
1870 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1871
1872 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1873
1874 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1875
1876 * New targets
1877
1878 Xtensa xtensa-elf
1879 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1880
1881 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1882 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1883 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1884
1885 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1886 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1887 supported.
1888
1889 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1890 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1891
1892 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1893 stub provides the required support.
1894
1895 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1896 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1897
1898 * New commands
1899
1900 set substitute-path
1901 unset substitute-path
1902 show substitute-path
1903 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1904 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1905 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1906 between compilation and debugging.
1907
1908 set trace-commands
1909 show trace-commands
1910 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1911 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1912 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1913
1914 * REMOVED features
1915
1916 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1917
1918 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1919 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1920
1921 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1922
1923 * New remote packets
1924
1925 qSupported:
1926 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1927 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1928 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1929 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1930 target.
1931
1932 qXfer:auxv:read:
1933 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1934 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1935
1936 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1937 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1938 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1939
1940 vFlashErase:
1941 vFlashWrite:
1942 vFlashDone:
1943 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1944
1945 * Removed remote packets
1946
1947 qPart:auxv:read:
1948 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1949 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1950
1951 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1952
1953 * New targets
1954
1955 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1956
1957 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1958
1959 * New commands
1960
1961 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1962 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1963
1964 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1965
1966 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1967
1968 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1969 previously saved state.
1970
1971 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1972
1973 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1974
1975 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1976 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1977
1978 info forks List forks of the user program that
1979 are available to be debugged.
1980
1981 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1982 forks of the user program that are
1983 available to be debugged.
1984
1985 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1986 that are available to be debugged (and
1987 kill the forked process).
1988
1989 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1990 that are available to be debugged (and
1991 allow the process to continue).
1992
1993 * New architecture
1994
1995 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1996
1997 * Improved Windows host support
1998
1999 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2000 native console support, and remote communications using either
2001 network sockets or serial ports.
2002
2003 * Improved Modula-2 language support
2004
2005 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2006 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2007 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2008 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2009 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2010 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2011
2012 * REMOVED features
2013
2014 The ARM rdi-share module.
2015
2016 The Netware NLM debug server.
2017
2018 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
2019
2020 * New native configurations
2021
2022 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2023 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2024
2025 * New targets
2026
2027 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2028
2029 * New command line options
2030
2031 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2032 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2033 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2034 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2035 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2036 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2037 with the --command (-x) option.
2038
2039 * Deprecated commands removed
2040
2041 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2042 removed:
2043
2044 Command Replacement
2045 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2046 othernames set arm disassembler
2047 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2048 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2049 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2050 regs info registers
2051
2052 * New BSD user-level threads support
2053
2054 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2055 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2056 configurations are:
2057
2058 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2059 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2060 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2061
2062 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2063 are not yet supported.
2064
2065 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2066 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2067
2068 * REMOVED configurations and files
2069
2070 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
2071 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2072 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
2073
2074 * New "set print array-indexes" command
2075
2076 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2077 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2078 behavior.
2079
2080 * VAX floating point support
2081
2082 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2083
2084 * User-defined command support
2085
2086 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2087 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2088 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2089
2090 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2091
2092 * New command line option
2093
2094 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2095 debugging.
2096
2097 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2098
2099 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2100 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2101 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2102 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2103 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
2104
2105 * Internationalization
2106
2107 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2108 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2109 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2110
2111 * Ada
2112
2113 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2114 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2115 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2116
2117 * New native configurations
2118
2119 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2120
2121 * Remote 'p' packet
2122
2123 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2124 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2125
2126 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2127
2128 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2129 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2130 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2131 i386 application).
2132
2133 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2134 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2135 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2136 configurations:
2137
2138 hppa-*-hpux
2139 ia64-*-aix
2140 mips-*-irix*
2141 *-*-lynx
2142 mips-*-linux-gnu
2143 sds protocol
2144 xdr protocol
2145 powerpc bdm protocol
2146
2147 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2148 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2149
2150 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2151
2152 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2153 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2154 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2155 permanently REMOVED.
2156
2157 h8300-*-*
2158 mcore-*-*
2159 mn10300-*-*
2160 ns32k-*-*
2161 sh64-*-*
2162 v850-*-*
2163
2164 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2165
2166 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2167
2168 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2169 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2170 been fixed.
2171
2172 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2173
2174 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2175 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2176 IRIX long double values).
2177
2178 * VAX and "next"
2179
2180 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2181 command. This problem has been fixed.
2182
2183 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2184
2185 * Fix for ``many threads''
2186
2187 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2188 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2189 error message:
2190
2191 ptrace: No such process.
2192 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2193
2194 This problem has been fixed.
2195
2196 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2197
2198 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2199 GDB to dump core).
2200
2201 * New ``start'' command.
2202
2203 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2204
2205 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2206
2207 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2208 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2209 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2210
2211 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2212 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2213 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2214 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2215 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2216 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2217 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2218 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2219 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2220
2221 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2222
2223 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2224 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2225 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2226 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2227 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2228
2229 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2230 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2231 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2232
2233 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2234
2235 * New native configurations
2236
2237 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2238 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2239 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2240 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2241 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2242 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2243 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2244
2245 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2246
2247 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2248 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2249 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2250 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2251 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2252 work, was also included.
2253
2254 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2255 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2256
2257 h8300-*-*
2258 mcore-*-*
2259 mn10300-*-*
2260 ns32k-*-*
2261 sh64-*-*
2262 v850-*-*
2263 xstormy16-*-*
2264
2265 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2266 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2267
2268 * REMOVED configurations and files
2269
2270 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2271 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2272 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2273 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2274 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2275 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2276 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2277 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2278 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2279 sonymips mips-sony-*
2280 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2281
2282 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2283
2284 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2285
2286 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2287 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2288 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2289 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2290 with GDB".
2291
2292 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2293
2294 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2295 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2296 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2297 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2298 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2299 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2300 are created.
2301
2302 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2303
2304 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2305
2306 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2307 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2308 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2309
2310 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2311
2312 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2313 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2314
2315 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2316
2317 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2318 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2319 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2320
2321 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2322
2323 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2324 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2325
2326 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2327
2328 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2329 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2330 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2331
2332 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2333
2334 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2335 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2336 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2337
2338 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2339
2340 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2341
2342 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2343 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2344
2345 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2346
2347 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2348 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2349 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2350 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2351
2352 * Revised SPARC target
2353
2354 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2355 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2356 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2357 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2358 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2359
2360 * New C++ demangler
2361
2362 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2363 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2364 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2365 programs.
2366
2367 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2368
2369 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2370 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2371 encountered these.
2372
2373 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2374
2375 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2376 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2377 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2378 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2379 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2380 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2381 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2382 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2383 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2384
2385 * New native configurations
2386
2387 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2388 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2389 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2390 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2391 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2392
2393 * New debugging protocols
2394
2395 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2396
2397 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2398
2399 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2400 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2401 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2402
2403 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2404
2405 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2406 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2407 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2408 permanently REMOVED.
2409
2410 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2411 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2412 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2413 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2414 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2415 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2416 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2417 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2418 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2419 sonymips mips-sony-*
2420 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2421
2422 * REMOVED configurations and files
2423
2424 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2425 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2426 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2427 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2428 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2429 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2430 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2431 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2432 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2433 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2434 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2435 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2436 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2437 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2438 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2439 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2440 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2441
2442 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2443
2444 * Objective-C
2445
2446 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2447 integrated into GDB.
2448
2449 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2450
2451 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2452 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2453 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2454 backtraces.
2455
2456 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2457 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2458 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2459
2460 * Hosted file I/O.
2461
2462 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2463 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2464 remote protocol documentation for details.
2465
2466 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2467
2468 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2469 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2470 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2471 ppc32 on ppc64).
2472
2473 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2474
2475 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2476 per-thread variables.
2477
2478 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2479
2480 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2481 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2482
2483 * Separate debug info.
2484
2485 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2486 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2487 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2488 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2489 and optional debug files.
2490
2491 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2492
2493 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2494 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2495 debugger.
2496
2497 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2498 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2499
2500 * Java
2501
2502 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2503 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2504 considered "useable".
2505
2506 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2507
2508 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2509 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2510 kernel.
2511
2512 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2513
2514 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2515 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2516
2517 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2518
2519 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2520 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2521 command.
2522
2523 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2524
2525 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2526 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2527
2528 * Profiling support
2529
2530 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2531 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2532 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2533 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2534 data, for more informative profiling results.
2535
2536 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2537
2538 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2539 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2540 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2541
2542 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2543 removed.
2544
2545 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2546 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2547 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2548 in a subsequent -var-update.
2549
2550 * New native configurations.
2551
2552 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2553
2554 * Multi-arched targets.
2555
2556 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2557 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2558
2559 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2560
2561 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2562 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2563 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2564 permanently REMOVED.
2565
2566 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2567 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2568 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2569 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2570 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2571 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2572 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2573 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2574 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2575 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2576 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2577 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2578
2579 * REMOVED configurations and files
2580
2581 V850EA ISA
2582 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2583 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2584 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2585 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2586 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2587 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2588 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2589 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2590 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2591 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2592 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2593 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2594 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2595
2596 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
2597
2598 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2599 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2600 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2601 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2602 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2603
2604 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2605
2606 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2607
2608 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2609 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2610 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2611 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2612 shared libs like mad''.
2613
2614 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2615
2616 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2617 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2618 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2619 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2620
2621 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2622
2623 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2624 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2625 they expand.
2626
2627 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2628 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2629
2630 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2631 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2632
2633 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2634 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2635 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2636 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2637
2638 * Multi-arched targets.
2639
2640 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2641 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2642 NEC V850 v850-*-*
2643 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2644 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2645 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2646
2647 * New targets.
2648
2649 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2650
2651
2652 * New native configurations
2653
2654 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2655 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2656 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2657 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2658
2659 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2660
2661 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2662 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2663 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2664 permanently REMOVED.
2665
2666 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2667 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2668 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2669 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2670 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2671 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2672 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2673 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2674 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2675 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2676 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2677 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2678 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2679
2680 * OBSOLETE languages
2681
2682 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2683
2684 * REMOVED configurations and files
2685
2686 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2687 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2688 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2689 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2690 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2691
2692 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2693
2694 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2695
2696 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2697 commands. The default is 1024.
2698
2699 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2700
2701 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2702
2703 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2704
2705 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2706 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2707 from a file into memory (restore).
2708
2709 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2710
2711 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2712 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2713 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2714
2715 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2716
2717 * New targets.
2718
2719 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2720
2721 * Bug fixes
2722
2723 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2724 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2725 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2726
2727 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2728 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2729 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2730
2731 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2732 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2733 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2734
2735 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2736 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2737 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2738
2739 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2740
2741 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2742
2743 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2744 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2745 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2746 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2747 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2748 (notably embedded) targets.
2749
2750 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2751
2752 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2753 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2754 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2755 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2756
2757 * New command line option
2758
2759 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2760
2761 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2762
2763 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2764 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2765 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2766 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2767 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2768 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2769 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2770 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2771 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2772 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2773
2774 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2775
2776 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2777 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2778
2779 * New native configurations
2780
2781 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2782 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2783 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2784 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2785
2786 * New targets
2787
2788 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2789
2790 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2791
2792 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2793 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2794 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2795 permanently REMOVED.
2796
2797 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2798 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2799 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2800 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2801 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2802
2803 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2804
2805 * REMOVED configurations and files
2806
2807 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2808 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2809 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2810 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2811 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2812 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2813 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2814 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2815 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2816 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2817 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2818 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2819 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2820
2821 * Changes to command line processing
2822
2823 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2824 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2825
2826 * Changes to key bindings
2827
2828 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2829
2830 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2831
2832 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2833
2834 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2835 corrupted.
2836
2837 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2838
2839 Numerous documentation fixes.
2840
2841 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2842
2843 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2844
2845 * New native configurations
2846
2847 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2848 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2849 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2850 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2851 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2852 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2853
2854 * New targets
2855
2856 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2857 CRIS cris-axis
2858 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2859
2860 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2861
2862 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2863 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2864 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2865 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2866 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2867 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2868 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2869 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2870 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2871 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2872 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2873 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2874 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2875 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2876
2877 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2878 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2879
2880 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2881 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2882 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2883 permanently REMOVED.
2884
2885 * REMOVED configurations and files
2886
2887 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2888 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2889 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2890 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2891 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2892 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
2893
2894 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2895
2896 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2897 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2898 present.
2899
2900 * Other news:
2901
2902 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2903
2904 * The MI enabled by default.
2905
2906 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2907 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2908 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2909 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2910 which is now deprecated.
2911
2912 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2913
2914 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2915 main features are supported:
2916
2917 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2918
2919 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2920 extension;
2921
2922 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2923
2924 - a Pascal expression parser.
2925
2926 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2927
2928 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2929
2930 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2931
2932 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2933 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2934
2935 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2936
2937 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2938
2939 * Changes in completion.
2940
2941 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2942 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2943 users expect at the shell prompt.
2944
2945 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2946 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2947 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2948 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2949 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2950 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2951 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2952
2953 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2954
2955 * New platform-independent commands:
2956
2957 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2958 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2959 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2960
2961 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2962
2963 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2964 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2965 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2966
2967 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2968
2969 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2970 multi-threaded programs though.
2971
2972 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2973
2974 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2975
2976 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2977 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2978 supported.)
2979
2980 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2981
2982 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2983 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2984 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2985 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2986 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2987 registers.
2988
2989 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2990 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2991 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2992
2993 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2994
2995 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2996 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2997
2998 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2999 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3000 IDT.
3001
3002 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3003 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3004 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3005 a given linear address.
3006
3007 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3008 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3009 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3010
3011 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3012
3013 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3014
3015 * Changes in documentation.
3016
3017 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3018 Documentation License.
3019
3020 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3021 manual.
3022
3023 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3024
3025 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3026 manual.
3027
3028 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3029 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3030 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3031
3032 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3033
3034 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3035 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3036 contents of this file.
3037
3038 * gdba.el deleted
3039
3040 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3041
3042 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3043
3044 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3045
3046 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3047 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3048 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3049 greater level of detail.
3050
3051 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3052
3053 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3054 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3055 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3056 written.
3057
3058 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3059
3060 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3061 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3062 machines ``out of the box''.
3063
3064 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3065 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3066 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3067 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3068 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3069
3070 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3071 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3072 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3073 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3074 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3075
3076 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3077 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3078 also works.
3079
3080 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3081 GDB.
3082
3083 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3084 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3085 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3086 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3087
3088 * New native configurations
3089
3090 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
3091 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3092
3093 * New targets
3094
3095 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
3096 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3097 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
3098 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3099
3100 * OBSOLETE configurations
3101
3102 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3103 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3104 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3105 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3106 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3107
3108 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3109 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3110 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3111 be permanently REMOVED.
3112
3113 * Gould support removed
3114
3115 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3116
3117 * New features for SVR4
3118
3119 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3120 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3121 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3122
3123 * Many C++ enhancements
3124
3125 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3126 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3127
3128 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3129
3130 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3131 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3132 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3133 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3134
3135 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3136 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3137
3138 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
3139
3140 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3141 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3142 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3143
3144 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3145 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3146
3147 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3148
3149 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3150 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3151 include ``set remote P-packet''.
3152
3153 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3154
3155 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3156 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3157 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3158
3159 * ``apropos'' command added.
3160
3161 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3162 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3163 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3164
3165 * New MI interface
3166
3167 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3168 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3169 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3170 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3171 enabled by configuring with:
3172
3173 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3174
3175 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3176
3177 * New native configurations
3178
3179 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3180 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3181 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3182
3183 * New targets
3184
3185 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3186 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3187 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3188
3189 * OBSOLETE configurations
3190
3191 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3192
3193 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3194 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3195 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3196 be permanently REMOVED.
3197
3198 * ANSI/ISO C
3199
3200 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3201 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3202 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3203 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3204 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3205 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3206 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3207 already.
3208
3209 * Readline 2.2
3210
3211 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3212
3213 * set extension-language
3214
3215 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3216 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3217 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3218 set extension-language .c c++
3219 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3220 and their associated languages.
3221
3222 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3223
3224 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3225 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3226 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3227
3228 set processor NAME
3229
3230 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3231 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3232
3233 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3234 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3235 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3236 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3237 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3238 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3239 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3240 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3241 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3242 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3243 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3244
3245 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3246 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3247 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3248 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3249
3250 * HP-UX support
3251
3252 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3253 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3254 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3255 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3256 for xdb and dbx commands.
3257
3258 * Catchpoints
3259
3260 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3261 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3262 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3263
3264 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3265 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3266 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3267
3268 * Debugging across forks
3269
3270 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3271 in the inferior.
3272
3273 * TUI
3274
3275 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3276 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3277 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3278
3279 * GDB remote protocol additions
3280
3281 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3282 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3283 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3284 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3285
3286 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3287 full 64-bit address. The command
3288
3289 set remoteaddresssize 32
3290
3291 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3292 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3293 will be discarded.
3294
3295 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3296 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3297
3298 maint packet heythere
3299
3300 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3301 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3302 time.
3303
3304 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3305 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3306 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3307
3308 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3309
3310 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3311 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3312 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3313
3314 * mask-address variable for Mips
3315
3316 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3317 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3318 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3319
3320 * Higher serial baud rates
3321
3322 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3323 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3324 to achieve all of these rates.)
3325
3326 * i960 simulator
3327
3328 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3329 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3330
3331
3332 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3333
3334 * New native configurations
3335
3336 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3337 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3338 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3339 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3340 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3341 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3342 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3343
3344 * New targets
3345
3346 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3347 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3348 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3349 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3350 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3351 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3352 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3353 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3354 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3355 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3356 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3357
3358 * New debugging protocols
3359
3360 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3361 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3362 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3363 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3364 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3365 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3366
3367 * DWARF 2
3368
3369 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3370 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3371 information.
3372
3373 * Java frontend
3374
3375 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3376 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3377
3378 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3379
3380 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3381 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3382 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3383
3384 * Live range splitting
3385
3386 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3387 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3388 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3389
3390 * Hurd support
3391
3392 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3393 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3394
3395 * ARM Thumb support
3396
3397 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3398 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3399 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3400 accordingly.
3401
3402 * MIPS16 support
3403
3404 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3405 instruction set.
3406
3407 * Overlay support
3408
3409 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3410 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3411 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3412 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3413 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3414 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3415
3416 * info symbol
3417
3418 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3419 the symbol at the specified address.
3420
3421 * Trace support
3422
3423 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3424 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3425 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3426 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3427 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3428
3429 * MIPS simulator
3430
3431 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3432 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3433 of most MIPS variants.
3434
3435 * Sparc simulator
3436
3437 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3438 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3439 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3440
3441 * set architecture
3442
3443 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3444 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3445 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3446 the possible architectures.
3447
3448 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3449
3450 * New native configurations
3451
3452 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3453 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3454 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3455 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3456 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3457 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3458
3459 * New targets
3460
3461 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3462 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3463 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3464 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3465 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3466 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3467 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3468
3469 * PowerPC simulator
3470
3471 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3472 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3473 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3474 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3475 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3476
3477 * Solaris 2.5
3478
3479 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3480
3481 * Windows 95/NT native
3482
3483 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3484 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3485 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3486 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3487 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3488
3489 * dont-repeat command
3490
3491 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3492 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3493 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3494 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3495
3496 * Send break instead of ^C
3497
3498 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3499 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3500 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3501
3502 * Remote protocol timeout
3503
3504 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3505 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3506 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3507
3508 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3509
3510 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3511 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3512 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3513 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3514 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3515
3516 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3517 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3518 automatically on hpux10.
3519
3520 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3521
3522 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3523
3524 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3525
3526 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3527 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3528 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3529 every character. The default value is 1050.
3530
3531 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3532
3533 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3534 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3535 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3536 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3537 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3538 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3539
3540 * Speedups for remote debugging
3541
3542 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3543 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3544 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3545
3546 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3547
3548 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3549 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3550
3551 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3552
3553 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3554
3555 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3556 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3557
3558 * Remote targets use caching
3559
3560 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3561 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3562 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3563 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3564 off' turns the the data cache off.
3565
3566 * Remote targets may have threads
3567
3568 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3569 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3570 gdb/remote.c for details.
3571
3572 * NetROM support
3573
3574 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3575 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3576 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3577 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3578 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3579 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3580 sequence is something like
3581
3582 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3583 load <prog>
3584 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3585
3586 * Macintosh host
3587
3588 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3589 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3590 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3591 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3592 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3593 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3594 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3595 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3596
3597 * Autoconf
3598
3599 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3600 but does simplify configuration and building.
3601
3602 * hpux10
3603
3604 GDB now supports hpux10.
3605
3606 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3607
3608 * New native configurations
3609
3610 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3611 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3612 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3613 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3614
3615 * New targets
3616
3617 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3618 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3619 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3620 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3621 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3622
3623 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3624
3625 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3626 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3627 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3628 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3629 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3630
3631 * Arguments to user-defined commands
3632
3633 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3634 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3635 trivial example:
3636 define adder
3637 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3638
3639 To execute the command use:
3640 adder 1 2 3
3641
3642 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3643 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3644 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3645
3646 * New `if' and `while' commands
3647
3648 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3649 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3650 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3651 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3652 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3653 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3654 if the expression is zero.
3655
3656 * Fortran source language mode
3657
3658 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3659 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3660 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3661 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3662 Fortran compilers.
3663
3664 * Better HPUX support
3665
3666 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3667 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3668 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3669 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3670 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3671
3672 adb -w a.out
3673 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3674 control-d
3675
3676 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3677 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3678
3679 adb -w a.out
3680 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3681 control-d
3682
3683 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3684 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3685 external linkage.
3686
3687 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3688 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3689
3690 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3691
3692 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3693 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3694 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3695 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3696 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3697 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3698
3699 * New DOS host serial code
3700
3701 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3702 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3703 a PC's serial port.
3704
3705 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3706
3707 * New "complete" command
3708
3709 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3710 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3711
3712 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3713
3714 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3715 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3716
3717 * Breakpoint hit counts
3718
3719 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3720 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3721 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3722 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3723 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3724 that breakpoint.
3725
3726 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3727
3728 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3729 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3730 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3731
3732 * Shared library breakpoints
3733
3734 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3735 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3736
3737 * Hardware watchpoints
3738
3739 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3740 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3741
3742 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3743
3744 * Annotations
3745
3746 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3747 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3748
3749 * Improved Irix 5 support
3750
3751 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3752
3753 * Improved HPPA support
3754
3755 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3756
3757 * New native configurations
3758
3759 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3760 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3761 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3762 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3763
3764 * New targets
3765
3766 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3767 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3768 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3769
3770 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3771
3772 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3773 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3774
3775 * Fixes
3776
3777 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3778 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3779
3780 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3781
3782 * Irix 5 is now supported
3783
3784 * HPPA support
3785
3786 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3787 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3788 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3789 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3790 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3791
3792
3793 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3794
3795 * User visible changes:
3796
3797 * Remote Debugging
3798
3799 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3800 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3801 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3802 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3803 debugging info for the mips target).
3804
3805 * DEC Alpha native support
3806
3807 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3808 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3809 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3810 Alpha-specific notes.
3811
3812 * Preliminary thread implementation
3813
3814 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3815
3816 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3817
3818 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3819 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3820 for details).
3821
3822 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3823
3824 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3825 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3826 call methods, ...etc.
3827
3828 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3829
3830 * User visible changes:
3831
3832 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3833 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3834 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3835 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3836
3837 Filename completion now works.
3838
3839 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3840 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3841 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3842
3843 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3844 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3845 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3846 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3847 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3848
3849 * DEC alpha support
3850
3851 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3852 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3853
3854
3855 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3856
3857 * Testsuite
3858
3859 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3860 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3861 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3862
3863 * C++ demangling
3864
3865 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3866 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3867 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3868 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3869 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3870
3871 * Simulators
3872
3873 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3874 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3875 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3876
3877 * New targets supported
3878
3879 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3880 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3881 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3882 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3883 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3884
3885 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3886 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3887 GO32 memory extender.
3888
3889 * New remote protocols
3890
3891 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3892
3893 * New source languages supported
3894
3895 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3896 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3897 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3898
3899
3900 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3901
3902 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3903
3904 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3905 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3906 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3907 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3908 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3909 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3910
3911 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3912
3913 * Faster and better demangling
3914
3915 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3916 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3917 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3918 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3919 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3920 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3921 symbol lookups.
3922
3923 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3924 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3925 compiler does not actually implement.
3926
3927 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3928
3929 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3930 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3931 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3932 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3933 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3934 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3935 fix.
3936
3937 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3938 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3939
3940 * Improved configure script
3941
3942 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3943 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3944 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3945 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3946
3947 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3948 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3949 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3950 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3951 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3952 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3953
3954 * Documentation improvements
3955
3956 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3957 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3958 before submitting changes.
3959
3960 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3961 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3962 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3963 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3964 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3965
3966 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3967 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3968 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3969 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3970 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3971 around this problem.
3972
3973 * New features
3974
3975 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3976 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3977 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3978 the target program.
3979
3980 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3981 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3982
3983 * New native hosts supported
3984
3985 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3986 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3987
3988 * New targets supported
3989
3990 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3991
3992 * New file formats supported
3993
3994 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3995 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3996
3997 * Major bug fixes
3998
3999 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4000
4001 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4002 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4003
4004 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4005 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4006 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4007
4008 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4009 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4010
4011 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4012 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4013 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4014 libraries.
4015
4016 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4017 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4018 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4019 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4020 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4021
4022 * Internal improvements
4023
4024 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4025 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4026
4027 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4028 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4029 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4030 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4031 shared code that handles any of them.
4032
4033 * New command line options
4034
4035 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4036
4037 * Mmalloc licensing
4038
4039 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4040 General Public License.
4041
4042 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4043
4044 * Host/native/target split
4045
4046 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4047 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4048 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4049 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4050 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4051
4052 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4053 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4054 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4055 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4056 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4057 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4058 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4059
4060 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4061 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4062 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4063
4064 * New hosts supported
4065
4066 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4067 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4068 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4069
4070 * New targets supported
4071
4072 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4073 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4074
4075 * New native hosts supported
4076
4077 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4078 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4079 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4080
4081 * New file formats supported
4082
4083 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4084 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4085 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4086
4087 * New commands
4088
4089 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4090 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4091 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4092
4093 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4094
4095 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4096 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4097 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4098 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4099
4100 * C++ improvements
4101
4102 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4103 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4104 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4105
4106 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4107
4108 * Major bug fixes
4109
4110 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4111 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4112 by the compiler.
4113
4114 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4115 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4116
4117 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4118 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4119 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4120 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4121 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4122 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4123
4124 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4125 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4126 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4127 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4128
4129 * AMD 29k support
4130
4131 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4132 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4133 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4134 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4135 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4136
4137 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4138 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4139 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4140 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4141
4142 * Remote interfaces
4143
4144 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4145 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4146 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4147 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4148 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4149 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4150 each instruction being stepped through.
4151
4152 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4153 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4154
4155 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4156 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4157 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4158 processor with a serial port.
4159
4160 * Configuration
4161
4162 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4163 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4164 supported, and what files each one uses.
4165
4166 * Library changes
4167
4168 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4169 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4170 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4171 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4172
4173 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4174 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4175 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4176 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4177
4178 * Documentation
4179
4180 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4181 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4182 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4183 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4184 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4185 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4186
4187 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4188
4189
4190 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4191
4192 * Better support for C++ function names
4193
4194 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4195 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4196 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4197 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4198 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4199
4200 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4201 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4202 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4203 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4204 for the list of formats.
4205
4206 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4207
4208 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4209 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4210 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4211 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4212 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4213 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4214 this problem.)
4215
4216 * New 'maintenance' command
4217
4218 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4219 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4220 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4221
4222 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4223 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4224 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4225 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4226 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4227 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4228
4229 The following commands are new:
4230
4231 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4232 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4233 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4234
4235 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4236
4237 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4238 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4239 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4240 read after argv processing.
4241
4242 * New hosts supported
4243
4244 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4245
4246 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4247
4248 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4249 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4250 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4251 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4252 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4253 It costs extra.
4254
4255 * New targets supported
4256
4257 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4258
4259 * More smarts about finding #include files
4260
4261 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4262 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4263 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4264 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4265 the one that contains your sources.
4266
4267 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4268 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4269 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4270
4271 * Interesting infernals change
4272
4273 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4274 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4275 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4276 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4277
4278 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4279
4280 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4281 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4282 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4283
4284 See the ChangeLog for details.
4285
4286 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4287
4288 * New machines supported (host and target)
4289
4290 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4291
4292 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4293
4294 * New malloc package
4295
4296 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4297 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4298 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4299 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4300 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4301 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4302
4303 * info proc
4304
4305 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4306 'help info proc' for details.
4307
4308 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4309
4310 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4311 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4312 possible.
4313
4314 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4315
4316 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4317 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4318 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4319 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4320 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4321 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4322
4323 * Cross byte order fixes
4324
4325 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4326 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4327
4328 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4329
4330 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4331 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4332 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4333 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4334 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4335 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4336 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4337 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4338 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4339 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4340
4341 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4342 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4343 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4344 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4345
4346 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4347 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4348 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4349 use is:
4350
4351 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4352
4353 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4354 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4355 shared across multiple host platforms.
4356
4357 * longjmp() handling
4358
4359 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4360 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4361 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4362 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4363
4364 * Solaris 2.0
4365
4366 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4367 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4368 reading symbols.
4369
4370 * Bug fixes
4371
4372 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4373 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4374 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4375
4376 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4377
4378 * New machines supported (host and target)
4379
4380 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4381 (except core files)
4382 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4383 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4384
4385 * New machines supported (target)
4386
4387 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4388
4389 * C++ support
4390
4391 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4392 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4393 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4394
4395 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4396 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4397 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4398 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4399 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4400 released.
4401
4402 * New features for SVR4
4403
4404 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4405 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4406 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4407
4408 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4409 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4410 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4411
4412 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4413 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4414
4415 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4416
4417 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4418 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4419 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4420 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4421 same code linked statically.
4422
4423 * New Getopt
4424
4425 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4426 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4427 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4428 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4429 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4430 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4431
4432 * Bugs fixed
4433
4434 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4435 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4436 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4437
4438
4439 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4440
4441 * New machines supported (host and target)
4442
4443 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4444 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4445 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4446
4447 * Almost SCO Unix support
4448
4449 We had hoped to support:
4450 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4451 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4452 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4453 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4454
4455 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4456
4457 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4458 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4459 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4460 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4461 reqired (if any).
4462
4463 * New Readline
4464
4465 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4466 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4467 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4468
4469 * Bugs fixed
4470
4471 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4472 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4473 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4474
4475 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4476
4477 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4478 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4479 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4480
4481 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4482 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4483 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4484 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4485 version 2.
4486
4487 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4488 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4489 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4490 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4491 situation somewhat.
4492
4493 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4494 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4495 methods.
4496
4497 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4498 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4499 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4500
4501
4502 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4503
4504 * Improved configuration
4505
4506 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4507 Porting BFD is simpler.
4508
4509 * Stepping improved
4510
4511 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4512 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4513 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4514 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4515
4516 * Bug fixing
4517
4518 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4519
4520 * New host supported (not target)
4521
4522 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4523
4524
4525 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4526
4527 * Multiple source language support
4528
4529 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4530 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4531 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4532 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4533 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4534 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4535
4536 * GDB and Modula-2
4537
4538 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4539 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4540 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4541 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4542
4543 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4544 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4545 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4546
4547 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4548 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4549
4550 * set write on/off
4551
4552 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4553 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4554 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4555 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4556 effect immediately.
4557
4558 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4559
4560 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4561 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4562 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4563 examining core files.
4564
4565 * set listsize
4566
4567 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4568 The default is 10.
4569
4570 * New machines supported (host and target)
4571
4572 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4573 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4574 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4575
4576 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4577
4578 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4579
4580 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4581
4582 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4583 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4584 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4585
4586 * New remote interfaces
4587
4588 AMD 29000 Adapt
4589 AMD 29000 Minimon
4590
4591
4592 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4593
4594 * New Facilities
4595
4596 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4597
4598 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4599 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4600 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4601 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4602 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4603 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4604 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4605 stub on the target system.
4606
4607 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4608
4609 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4610 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4611 object file types such as a.out and coff.
4612
4613 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4614 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4615
4616
4617 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4618
4619 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4620 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4621
4622 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4623 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4624 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4625
4626 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4627 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4628 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4629 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4630
4631 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4632 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4633 it is already running. Default is ON.
4634
4635 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4636 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4637 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4638 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4639 Default is ON.
4640
4641 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4642 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4643 or the value of the environment variable
4644 GDBHISTFILE.
4645
4646 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4647 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4648 HISTSIZE.
4649
4650 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4651 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4652 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4653
4654 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4655 history expansion will be performed on
4656 command line input. The default is OFF.
4657
4658 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4659 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4660 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4661
4662 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4663 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4664 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4665 variable TERM.
4666
4667 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4668 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4669 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4670 variable TERM.
4671
4672 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4673 ``set width'' instead.
4674
4675 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4676 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4677 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4678 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4679
4680 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4681 is OFF.
4682
4683 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4684 "raw" form if off.
4685
4686 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4687 like instructions.
4688
4689 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4690
4691
4692 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4693
4694 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4695 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4696 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4697 window.
4698
4699
4700 * Support for Shared Libraries
4701
4702 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4703 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4704 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4705 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4706 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4707 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4708 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4709 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4710
4711 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4712 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4713 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4714
4715 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4716
4717
4718 * Watchpoints
4719
4720 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4721 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4722 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4723 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4724 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4725 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4726
4727 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4728
4729 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4730
4731 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4732 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4733 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4734
4735
4736 * C++ multiple inheritance
4737
4738 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4739 for C++ programs.
4740
4741 * C++ exception handling
4742
4743 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4744 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4745 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4746 handler's context).
4747
4748 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4749 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4750 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4751
4752 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4753 current stack frame.
4754
4755
4756 * Minor command changes
4757
4758 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4759 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4760 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4761
4762 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4763 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4764 frames without printing.
4765
4766 * New directory command
4767
4768 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4769 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4770 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4771 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4772 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4773
4774 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4775
4776 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4777 for more details.
4778
4779 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4780 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4781 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4782 where the program that you are debugging will run.